That’s a wrap! Books of 2016.

The first book I read in 2016 was a life changer, I was in Bali searching for meaning and learning new career skills when I started reading “Big Magic” by Elizabeth Gilbert.

This book blew by socks off, the illustration is very fitting for how it makes you feel inside. It was one of the best books I have read in my entire life. As someone who is extremely self conscious about expressing myself creatively and trying new things this text spoke volumes to me and made me think about not running away from my creative endeavours but embracing them and letting them grow into whatever they want to be. Not trying to control it, by go with it.
Even if you are not creative in the art world this book will still be a guidance in living a more fulfilling existence. It was my mantra in Bali and helped me through a lot of depressing thoughts.

Then I resisted some old favourites with one of my favourite novels.

“Eragon” (which ironically my Mac always autocorrects to dragon).
It’s about dragons, a boy named Eragon and discovering his destiny and fate of the land.
It’s a classic and was a great way to start the year off.Please for the love of God in Heaven above DO NOT WATCH THE MOVIE!
I’ll explain in a meme.

Then I revisited another old favourite.

“Poison Study”

This is another fantasy genre and we are taken on a journey of deception and love following the new taste tester of the King. It has some twists in it but I won’t spoil it.

To end my trip down nostalgia lane I reread “Graceling”

Another fantasy genre/YA readership approved. This book is one of my favourite’s about these people who have certain gifts, this girl is exceptional and has the gift of killing. It’s amazingly suspenseful and full of flowing chapters, never boring.

Then I moved interstate to Queensland and thought it would be nice to read some classics, I started with “For Whom the Bell Tolls” by Ernest Hemingway and finished with “Great Expectations” by Charles Dickens.
Both classics and both written differently to books of the modern age.

On the road I felt this great sense of calm and peace and had an itching to pick up another old favourite “Paris Letters”

This books is so dear to my heart, it captures the city of Paris so beautifully in it’s pages and fills me with a sense of nostalgia for the places she mentions as the story progresses. It’s such a simple little story and filled with romance but sometimes it’s the simple pleasures in life that matter the most.

After moving to Queensland I had hit a wall, a rut as it is labelled. I felt lost and this was all new and strange, a completely different environment.
I decided it was time to further educate myself with a book I always go back to and reference.

“Healing Depression the Mind Body Way”
Very few know that I suffer bouts of depression, and not your typical “I feel sad today” but the deep dark depression that forces you to stay in bed all day and hate yourself.
This book has provided me with soooooo many techniques and a new way of thinking that has guided me to a better place when I put these techniques into practice.
If you take anything from this blog post, take this book.

After reading this I felt the need to deepen my mindfulness and read a short little book about it by Kate James titled “Be Mindful & Simplify Your Life.”

It’s a quick and simple read just like the title suggests and provides lots of awesome tips and tricks to live a more mindful and simple existence in such a fast paced and busy world.

I then went ahead and read “Willie Nelson: It’s a Long Story.”

Which is a biography about his amazing life, he’s still kicking and he’s still playing music and smoking weed, I think he will be doing those things until the day he dies.
But this book was special because he wrote it, it was honestly him and he didn’t leave any stone unturned in writing down his journey and all his trials and tribulations throughout his life.
He’s one of the few people on this Earth that I truly connect with on a deep level and I am grateful that I was able to read his journey and listen to his music.

Finishing off the year I have almost read Stephen King’s new book “End of Watch.”

I normally hate thrillers and much prefer fantasy or fiction but this one had me hooked, King is a mastermind of literature and writes so beautifully with such suspenseful that it’s not to become addicted to his work when you pick it up.

As a bonus I’m also reading/doing “The Life Plan” by Shannah Kennedy which is all about getting your shit together and forming new habits. I love it and I love doing the exercises in the book.

That concludes 2016’s reading list and for 2017 I am hoping to double it in size, 10 books in a year isn’t enough for me haha.
But I feel like I have had a good mix of old classics, revisited some favourites and discovered some newbies.
I hope everybody read some interesting literature this year and bring on 2017!